The big rumor

Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith did not make it here to Houston as part of the Eastern Conference All-Star team, though it could be argued he deserved to. Would have been nice to have him here, too, since he has been one of the most-discussed trade targets of the rumor-mill season.

The problem that Atlanta is having when it comes to trading Smith is that he is an impending free agent, and, as such, teams are wary of giving up too much for a guy who might stick around for only a third of a season.

Smith will be looking for a max contract this summer, and someone is going to bite on that and give it to him—plenty of teams have cap space coming up, and should Dwight Howard and Chris Paul do as expected and return to their current teams, there will be money available for Smith.

The Dallas Mavericks have been one team mentioned in connection to Smith, but there’s little chance the Mavs would make a move to trade for him. If Smith wants to play for the Mavericks—and of the teams interested in him, Dallas would have to be near the top of the list—then the team can simply wait till the summer and sign him. The only advantage to acquiring him now would be getting his Bird rights, but those aren’t all that important in Smith’s case.

Both have young assets and draft picks they could sacrifice to get Smith, but neither has any assurance that Smith would want to re-sign long-term. Smith would be a very good fit with each, but he would not be that keen on the idea of playing in Milwaukee, and though things have been going better for the Wizards, the recent track record in Washington is not a plus.

Perhaps the best fit for Smith, though, would be with the Houston Rockets, where GM Daryl Morey has carefully stockpiled young assets exactly for the purpose of cashing them in for star-caliber players.

But would Houston be sold on giving a max-level deal to Smith? Would he be enough to make the Rockets into a championship contender? Smith has given coaches problems in the past, and there is a reason the Hawks are amenable to trading him.

Morey has earned a contract extension himself and isn’t feeling the pressure of needing to make a move for the sake of a move. He can be patient and save his young pieces for someone less risky—and someone who won’t require the big contract that Smith will want.

Smith clearly wants out of Atlanta, and GM Danny Ferry wants to accommodate him. But finding a deal that makes sense has proved difficult.

The other big rumor

This weekend, Kevin Garnett stated, pretty emphatically, that he wants to retire a Celtic, and because he has a no-trade clause, he is in a position to ensure that happens.

Because he’s left the slightest bit of wiggle room when it comes to his public statements on the matter. In addition to saying he wants to be buried in green, Garnett said that he understands the position team president Danny Ainge is in, and that Ainge needs to do what’s best for the franchise.

“My expectations were not to come back to be traded,” Garnett said. “We both understand that, but this is a business and you have to understand that.”

That doesn’t sound like a guy who has said to Ainge that he won’t waive his no-trade clause, period.

It sounds more like a guy who would listen if Ainge comes to him and says he has a deal that would boost the Celtics in the long term and put Garnett in a championship situation, one that suits his personal life, in the short-term.

The under-the-radar rumor

The Portland Trail Blazers will enter the stretch run at 25-28, having lost five games in a row and falling to ninth in the Western Conference playoff picture, three games behind the eighth-place Rockets and just a half-game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers.

It’s not a big surprise to see the Blazers unravel a bit at this point of the season, because their leading scorer has been rookie Damian Lillard and their bench has been epically terrible—their leading reserves are Luke Babbitt and Meyers Leonard, who average 4.2 points each, and Leonard is the only bench player shooting above 40.5 percent.

A move to bolster the reserves and give Portland a better shot at a playoff spot seems a good idea. But the Blazers have a long-term plan, and they want to keep cap space for next summer. That’s a bit of a bummer for All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge.

“I feel like they’re not going to try to make any quick fixes this year,” Aldridge said. “I feel like they want to take this year and get the young guys better, get guys experience. So I don’t think they will make a move, I think they want to run it out with these guys.”

That could mean a wasted year of Aldridge in his prime, though. He understands that.

“I definitely want to increase my chances,” he said, “but they have a plan they’re trying to follow.”

The rumor that isn’t (but should be)

All right, Jefferson is no David Robinson on the defensive end, and Splitter has blossomed into a good reserve who still has a bright future.

But Jefferson is a beast offensively, and the Spurs have to be thinking win-now. Should the Spurs get through to the West finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder again, Jefferson would be a weapon next to Tim Duncan who could exploit OKC inside.